Rear projection display systems with thin housings have been demonstrated or have been proposed. Two such applications are described in United States Patent Application Publication No. U.S.20030231261 and United States Patent Application Publication No. U.S.20040141157, both assigned to Silicon Optix Inc. In these prior art disclosures, the ratio of the screen diagonal to the thickness of the housing (the so-called D-to-d ratio) of the systems is about 6:1. It is desirable to push the D-to-d ratio even higher which is the subject matter of the current disclosure.